Review of Faster (2010) by Dan B — 21 Apr 2011

When one thinks of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, on does not think of quality cinema. And that's not to knock the guy. I'll watch almost anything he's in, I almost like The Race to Witch Mountain because of his being in it but I sure as hell won't be watching The Toothfairy a second time around...that's not to say...that...I watched it a first......moving on.

The once wrestler with a keen sense of smell turned actor with a poor taste in roles has spent a good portion of his post elbow dropping career trying to get a choke hold on a solid movie role, too a rock bottom result. Okay, I'll stop. Despite turning in a strangely solid performance in the otherwise sour tasting mess that was Southland Tales he's not made much headway in achieving his goal, until now...ish. I'm not saying Faster is anything major to write home about but it's hell close that's for sure.

After the murder of his brother, the man known only as The Driver goes on a systematic manhunt for every one of the people responsible.

Simple. Easy to remember. That is the plot of Faster. It's a straight up revenge flick with a few (honestly) lack-luster twists and turns to break things up a bit. The writing is far from solid, and the acting is frankly one note but if you get a kick out of the idea of seeing Kill Bill by way of Smokin' Aces then that's a fighting chance you won't mind spending 90 minutes on this. It's far from being a great movie, and far from being a bad one, but it's not middle of the road either. There's energy is it and a sense that there's no pretensions, it's just a wannabe old school road revenge flick, and there's nothing wrong with that.